It's a pain in the arse when you wire up and it doesn't work!

axisus

Oh feckitty feck. Darned annoying/frustrating. I wired up and I'm getting no sound. I quadruple checked everything but it's not a happy bunny so I've disconnected the lot for now.

It's a complicated bastard, three P90s, Schaller megaswitch (which I had to wire the wrong way around, as it didn't fit the other way), piezo trem with board, 3 way switch, complicated jack plug!

Add into the mix the fact that the Piezo/pots/mini switch were all secondhand, not wired up brilliantly, and deviated a bit from the 'official' wiring in the way they were previously done. No guarantee that they all work properly!

Anyway, for now I'm just going to rewire with a standard switch, a new pot, new regular input jack and no piezo. Return to headscratching at a later date when I have finished setting up the rest of the guitar. 

Disappointing day ...

Funkfingers

Are the magnetic and piezo signals fully discrete from each other, with individual output sockets, or do they get blended on a PCB?

axisus

Funkfingers said:

Are the magnetic and piezo signals fully discrete from each other, with individual output sockets, or do they get blended on a PCB?

Mini 3 way switch to have one, the other or both. Piezo has a PCB on its volume pot.

ICBM

Test it in sections as you go along rather than assembling the whole complicated mess at once and hope it all works .

axisus

ICBM said:

Test it in sections as you go along rather than assembling the whole complicated mess at once and hope it all works .

Yeah, I thought I'd wire up one component at a time and test!

Andyjr1515

Do you use a continuity checker/ ohm setting on a multimeter @axisus ?  Godsend when it comes to sorting out these kinds of thing.  It's usually a missing earth somewhere...

axisus

Andyjr1515 said:

Do you use a continuity checker/ ohm setting on a multimeter @axisus ?  Godsend when it comes to sorting out these kinds of thing.  It's usually a missing earth somewhere...

I did a partial rewire last night, and yes I was using continuity checker/ohm setting. Still no joy. Having got to work I took a quick look at the original wiring for the powerbridge, and I missed the fact that the 9 pin jack plug goes to earth. So I'll be straight on the case with that when I get home.

axisus

For what it's worth I figured it out. It's my first time wiring P90s with braided wires. What horrible things braided wires are! Yes, they look lovely but they are a pain in the arse to 'unpick', plus my woes were with them touching stuff that they shouldn't. The main issue was the neck pickup wire touching the underside of the middle pickup, but there is another slight issue which I bodged a bit for now. There's quite a few wires under the pickguard due to 3 pickups plus piezo, and something 'shorts' when I put the plate on and it compresses the wires a bit. For now I have stuck a bit of padding around the braids, which has cured it. One to look into next time I have it all apart.

ICBM

You need to push the braids back rather than unpicking them, and put some sleeving over the outside wherever there's a risk of them touching something. Other than that, it's nice wiring because the cloth-insulated type can't really be overheated and short, unlike plastic cables.

axisus

ICBM said:

You need to push the braids back rather than unpicking them, and put some sleeving over the outside wherever there's a risk of them touching something. Other than that, it's nice wiring because the cloth-insulated type can't really be overheated and short, unlike plastic cables.

I don't see how pushing them back would be possible! Looking online everyone says unpick them. 

WezV

They do push back quite easily, but the other way I sometimes do it is to loosen the braid a few cm from the end, just enough to pull the center wire through.   

ICBM

axisus said:

I don't see how pushing them back would be possible! Looking online everyone says unpick them. 

Everyone online is wrong . Just look at any older Gibson with factory wiring.

axisus

ICBM said:

axisus said:

I don't see how pushing them back would be possible! Looking online everyone says unpick them. 

Everyone online is wrong . Just look at any older Gibson with factory wiring.

Fair enough!